I 

was looking forward to the 
Zoom “
AEN Town Hall” on 
Feb. 29, 2024, because I want-
ed to be with those as shocked 
and bewildered as I was by Oct. 
7, 2023, and the 
explosion of Jew 
hatred after that. 
The Academic 
Engagement 
Network (AEN)
has been “orga-
nizing faculty to 
oppose efforts to 
delegitimize Israel and to defend 
academic freedom on campus” 
since 2015; it promotes dialogue, 
rational and civil discussion, 
and mutual understanding. 
AEN became important to me 
during the struggle to fend off 
the endorsement of BDS by the 
MLA — the Modern Language 
Association with 25,000 mem-
bers (including me, like most 
English faculty). In 2017, the 

MLA voted strongly and defini-
tively against BDS. 
I was familiar with academic 
anti-Zionism long before 2015 
and one short anecdote will suf-
fice: An English Department col-
league at Wayne State University 
urged a graduate student not to 
study Irish literature with me 
because I was a “Zionist” and 
could not understand post-co-
lonial Ireland. She studied with 
me anyway. At the time my col-
league’s lobbying against me for 
my Zionism just seemed silly, but 
in retrospect it was much worse 
than that.
The topic of the Town Hall was 
trying to understand the rapid 
growth of “Faculty for Justice in 
Palestine Network” with over 80 
chapters springing up since Oct. 
7. At the beginning of the Zoom 
meeting, Miriam Elman, the 
AEN convener, reminded us that 
the meeting would not be record-

ed, as was the usual practice, so 
that people could speak their 
minds without fear. First, several 
speakers described their efforts to 
help Jewish students and faculty 
from the post-Oct. 7 onslaught of 
hatred and malice. 
Untenured faculty, graduate 
students and undergradu-
ates, all familiar with routine 
anti-Israelism in academia, now 
experienced something new 
and darker: shunning, physical 
intimidation, threats, disillusion-
ment from losing friends and 
professional contacts, and overall 
feeling alone and unwelcome as a 
Jew who supported Israel. 
It was hard to hear these sto-
ries of widespread hurt, fear, 
anxiety and even trauma. Since 
retiring from the Wayne State 
English Department in 2021, I 
had lost an intuitive sense of the 
academic climate. Academic life 
depends on collaboration, apply-
ing for grants, job interviews, 
lecture invitations, soliciting 
recommendation letters and 
networking. Now that “Zionist” 
has become radioactive in some 

academic spaces, pro-Israel aca-
demics in any field will now have 
to be cautious in a way they did 
not before Oct. 7. 
A New Jersey faculty member 
was part of a group that met 
with their university president to 
discuss Jewish concerns. She was 
happy with the outcome of the 
meeting and encouraged the rest 
of us to do something similar. It 
is not futile to make the college 
authorities fully aware of how 
students and faculty are experi-
encing the post-Oct. 7 hostility to 
Israel and Jews. 
A New York professor 
described forming a small group 
of pro-Israel faculty, some of 
whom were willing to make 
public their support and others 
who were not, for fear of harm-
ing their careers. He, too, urged 
taking the initiative to make a 
strong, organized public presence 
to help students, faculty and their 
allies. Just getting a public list 
to show students they were not 
alone and had support was an 
important act. 

Dr. Michael 
Scrivener

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opinion
Hamas in Academia

